OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have charged a Kanata man in connection with selling pirated satellite receivers.

Members of the RCMP’s A Division Federal Investigations Unit and inspectors from Industry Canada executed a search warrant at a Colonnade Road business on Dec. 20, according to a release.

The search resulted in the seizure of satellite receivers and computers allegedly used to modify legal satellite receivers so they could obtain encrypted signals from Bell Express Vu and Dish Network.

Laith Murtadha Kadhim was arrested during the search. Described as an employee of the business, Kadhim faces two charges under the Radiocommunications Act for decoding an encrypted subscription programming signal or an encrypted network feed without authorization and retransmitting it to the public. He also faces one criminal charge for selling a device to obtain telecommunication facility or service.

In November 2012, NagraStar LLC, together with Nagravision S.A., DISH Network LLC, EchoStar Satellite LLC and EchoStar Technologies LLC, commenced a legal action against Dean Love of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Love was active on piracy forum web sites under the moniker “wEeDeR”. An injunction was obtained and a civil search order was executed against Love and his premises. The execution of the order resulted in the seizure of technology and substantial evidence and information concerning the unlawful activities of Love and others. The action was another victory in NagraStar‘s continuing efforts to prevent satellite television piracy throughout North America.

It was revealed today that global content security companies Irdeto and NAGRA have been working with satellite service provider M7 Group to investigate and disrupt the illegal distribution of pay TV content in Belgium.

As a result of this work, Ahmad Masroor was convicted in the Herselt Court in Belgium charged with operating an illegal commercial control word sharing server on 29 September 2012. Masroor was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment and ordered to forfeit €50,000 in a Paypal account that was used to collect subscriptions to the illegal service.

Said Hans Troelstra, COO, M7 Group: “M7 will continue to fight piracy with both legal and technical means. We have joint forces with CA vendors and other pay TV operators throughout Europe to further increase the effect of our counter measures.”

Investigation into the case commenced in 2009 and focused around the website www.CCcam.tv. The site offered pirate subscriptions for a wide range of pay TV content including TV VLAANDEREN, TéléSAT and CanalDigital. Irdeto made a test purchase from the suspect and subsequently provided expert evidence regarding the control word sharing server to the Belgian Economic Inspectorate. Control word sharing piracy poses a major threat to pay TV operators and broadcasters and occurs when a pirate steals and retransmits a regularly changing control word that is passed between a smart card and a set-top-box (STB), allowing subscribers to watch TV content they have not paid for. Upon receiving the evidence, the Belgian Economic Inspectorate raided the premises of the suspect, seizing PC’s, laptops, hard drives, servers and business records. Click here to see Exhibit A: CCcam.tv home page, Exhibit B: CCcam.tv pirate subscriptions and Exhibit C: CCcam.tv FAQ.

A security director of the Irdeto Anti-Piracy & Forensics Unit, said, “The result of this case is significant not only for the strong conviction, but is one of the first cases where assets in the form of profits in a Paypal account were forfeited.

“Illegal profit is the primary motivation for pay TV pirates and this judgment sends a forceful deterrent message to other would-be pirates that if you are caught, not only will you face a lengthy prison sentence but you will also lose your ill-gotten gains. The final court result is very pleasing given the months of work put in by Irdeto, NAGRA and the M7 Group to protect our customers from this significant commercial threat. We continue to work closely with our customers and our industry on both technical and legal fronts to address piracy.”

Pascal Metral, Principal Corporate Lawyer at NAGRA and Kudelski Security units said, “This decision confirms the trend observed in other territories where such pay-tv piracy leads to numerous and successful prosecutions. Fighting piracy requires a combination of technical and legal countermeasures. We were pleased to bring our expertise and collaborate with M7 and Irdeto in fighting this case and will continue to do so around the globe.”

On November 21, 2012 the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted DISH Network and NagraStar’s motion for final judgment against Iram Jordy Bolanos, Eric Moreno Bolanos, Yolanda Bolanos and Joel Alvarado Lizama, individually and dba www.nexiks.com and www.nexiks.net. Defendants was sued by DISH Network and NagraStar for federal claims arising out of their operation of the NexIKS websites. The Court’s order includes a permanent injunction against all Defendants as well as an award of $115,000 in statutory damages ($1,000 per violation) under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), an additional $5,900 in fees/costs, and orders Verisign and GoDaddy to force the impoundment of the nexiks websites and transfer them to NagraStar. The Court further ordered Defendants’ computers, servers and business records impounded and turned over to NagraStar for analysis. DISH Network and NagraStar continue to investigate and take action against those responsible for trying to circumvent the companies’ security system in order to gain unauthorized access to DISH Network programming.

On October 25, 2012 the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted DISH Network and NagraStar’s motion for default against Adrian Khan. Khan was sued by DISH Network and NagraStar for federal claims arising out of his subscription to the Dark Angel services. The Court’s order includes a permanent injunction against Khan as well as an award of $10,000 in statutory damages (the maximum damages per violation) under the Electronics Communication Privacy Act (“ECPA”), an additional $6,050 in fees/costs, and rules that the entire judgment amount is non-dischargeable in the Bankruptcy proceeding Khan filed in an attempt to escape liability. DISH Network and NagraStar continue to investigate and take action against those responsible for trying to circumvent the companies’ security system in order to gain unauthorized access to DISH Network programming.